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Colorado Law Holds Annual Rothgerber Competition

February 10, 2012

This past Wednesday February 8, 2012, the final round arguments of the annual Rothgerber Moot Court Competition were held in the Wittemyer Courtroom of the Wolf Law building. The competition was endowed in 1951 by Ira C. Rothgerber, Jr. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his father's graduation from Colorado Law.

Two teams of three third year law students competed in this year's final. The petitioner team was comprised of Jessica Ross, CiCi Cheng, and Greg Hearing. Those on the respondents team were Carol Liang, Michael Lutz, and Ben Wilson. The two teams were tasked with arguing a First Amendment case that questioned a school district's right to punish a student for internet speech made about a classmate while outside of school property. The teams also argued a spoliation of evidence adverse inference jury instruction involving the negligent deletion of critical emails.

The competition was judged by Colorado Supreme Court Justice Monica Marquez, U.S. District Judge Brooke Jackson, and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Maria Teresa “Terry” Fox; who all graciously volunteered their time in order to preside over the arguments. Both teams presented strong cases, and choosing a winning team was no easy task for the judges. In the end, though, it was the petitioner team that emerged victorious. In addition, Greg Hearing, of the petitioner team, was awarded the Austin W. Scott Award for best oralist.

Prior to this intramural competition, over the November 4, 2011 weekend the two teams competed in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 11th Region of the National Moot Court Competition held by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York Bar Association.

The Colorado Law petitioner team advanced to finals against University of Utah, and defeated that team decisively to win Regionals. The petitioner team also took home the Best Brief award for their appellate brief to the "Supreme Court," and Greg Hearing was awarded the Best Oralist award for both the preliminary rounds as well as the finals.

On February 1, 2012, after winning the Regionals, Jessica, CiCi, and Greg advanced past Georgetown and Emory in the preliminary rounds of the National Moot Court Competition in New York City, and only lost by one point in the final approach to the Elite Eight.

Colorado Law would like to congratulate Jessica Ross, CiCi Cheng, and Greg Hearing on their impressive victories, as well as all the other participants.